Book review: ‘Dreams and Shadows,’ by C. Robert Cargill

Dreams and Shadows seems to get off to a false start: The opening chapter describes the fairytale romance of Jared and Tiffany Thatcher, who met in high school, got married a few years later, and named their son Ewan because they saw Trainspotting on their first date. Their happiness is cut short, though, when an unworldly creature steals Ewan from his crib, replacing him with a changeling named Knocks who drives Tiffany to suicide and goads Jared to his own death in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake.

Then, after a short exposition on changelings from a guide to the supernatural called A Chronicle of the Dreamfolk, the novel digs deep into the tale of Colby Stevens, an 8-year-old boy who, playing in the woods outside his home, encounters a djinn named Yashar. When he learns that fairies, angels and wizards are real, too, Colby swiftly makes up his mind: “I wish you would show me everything supernatural.”

Though the djinn tries to steer him toward alternative boons, the boy is determined, and — after collecting a battered teddy bear named Mr. Bearston from his bedroom — he sets out with Yashar on a journey to explore a world hovering on the fringes of our own.

C. Robert Cargill knows just what he’s up to, though. Eventually, he steers the story back to Ewan, who has been raised by the fairies of the Limestone Kingdom (tucked away in the Hill Country) as one of their own — to the bitter resentment of Knocks.

When Ewan and Colby’s paths finally cross, the innocent joy of two young boys wandering through a magical land practically radiates from the page, until things take a spectacularly dark turn. Once Colby learns the true reason the fairies took Ewan from his home, he persuades Yashar to make him a wizard — and even though we may believe Colby is doing the right thing by trying to protect his friend, his youthful, impulsive anger still reads like the boy in the classic Twilight Zone episode. Except Colby can do a lot worse than wish people into the cornfield.

All of this, mind you, is just the first half of the novel.

Cargill has spent a decade writing for the film website Ain’t It Cool News and scripted Sinister, the 2012 horror film starring Ethan Hawke. All that time spent at the movies is reflected in the expert pacing of the second act, which reunites Colby and Ewan (now in their early 20s) in Austin’s underground scene — with Knocks still nursing a grudge against them both. There’s a sense of epic tragedy to the proceedings, which are continually spurred on by the trickster Coyote, working his own devious agenda.

What really sells the story, though, is the excellent character work, like the ambivalent relationship between Yashar and Colby, who remains haunted by everything his djinn has shown him over the years.

The Austin setting is developed with deft touches like the iconic Sixth Street, “where college kids escape to binge drink and 35-year-olds escape to feel like college kids.” The emphasis, however, is on the fantasy, with several “big screen” set pieces crafted for maximum dramatic impact, as Cargill folds the elaborate folklore — including all those “nonfictional” interludes — into a modern urban setting with an elegance comparable to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods or Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, flecked with a Texas accent as authentic as Joe R. Lansdale or Bradley Denton.

Dreams and Shadows is an impressive debut, one that’ll be hard to top — though whatever Cargill does next is likely to be entertaining.

Ron Hogan is the founder of Beatrice.com, one of the first literary websites.

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